Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Countdown to the Oscars: Best Costume Design

Each day as we make
our way to the Academy Awards ceremony Feb. 22, Last Cinema Standing will take
an in-depth look at each of the categories, sorting out the highs, the lows,
and everything in between. Check back right here for analysis, predictions, and
gripes as we inch toward the Dolby Theater and that world-famous red carpet.

Best Costume Design

When it comes to the Academy voting on the below-the-line
categories, “best” often equates to “most.” Nowhere is that more true than in
the Best Costume Design category. Big, flashy period epics with loads of extras
dressed up in era-appropriate attire tend to win this award. The more costumes
a film has and the fancier they are, the better that film’s chances of winning.

Add to that the fact that the costume designers comprise a
fairly insular branch that often nominates and rewards the same people, and you
have a recipe for sometimes bland and uninspiring nominations. Case in point,
in this group, there are four previous winners, including two designers with
three Oscars each, and a triple nominee. This is not to say this year’s
nominees are not deserving, only that it is sometimes hard for new talent on
less heralded films to sneak into the ceremony.

As pertains to this year, every nominee is for a period
film, which is a disappointment, to say the least. You would think if anyone
could recognize the amazing, character-defining costume work in modern-set
films such as Frank, Nightcrawler, and Gone Girl, it would be the costume designers. Not so, and year
after year, they fall for flashy, fancy, fantasy work. That said, one of my
favorite nominations of the year came in this category, so we will start there.

Inherent Vice – The closest thing to modern in this year’s
lineup, costume designer Mark Bridge’s 1970s-inspired outfits for this stoner
detective story are thread perfect. Set in Southern California in the early ’70s,
right as the hippie movement is dying out and hardline conservatism is coming
into fashion, Bridge’s costumes evoke both the breezy, laid-back feel of the
locale and the clashing ideals of two diametrically opposed political factions.

For Joaquin Phoenix’s private eye Doc Sportello, Bridges
keeps things light and airy, giving the character button-up shirts that are too
big and never buttoned all the way up, wrinkled khakis and long shorts, and a
hat that would be more in fashion at the beach or the dog track than during a
kidnapping investigation. On the flipside of that is Josh Brolin’s policeman
Bigfoot Bjornsen. He is the law. He is order. He sports a suit and tie at all
times, even in his home. The collar is starched, and the top button is always
buttoned.

If you are looking for iconography, there is the femme
fatale Shasta Hepworth, played by Katherine Waterston, whose tight-fitting
orange dress could be a statement unto itself. That woman, in that dress,
walking through that door, can only spell trouble for Doc. We know the story,
we know the history, and thanks to one article of clothing, we know the
character.

The Grand Budapest Hotel – Costume designer Milena Canonero’s
work here checks off pretty much every box of the Academy’s likes: fantastical
period designs in a widely loved Best Picture nominee. Canonero has won three
Oscars in her career – for Marie Antoinette,
Chariots of Fire, and Barry Lyndon – and she looks to be well
on her way to collecting a fourth, which would place her in rare air. Only
three other designers have won at least four Academy Awards and none with as
few nominations as Canonero, who is a nine-time nominee.

Just like the film itself, her work on The Grand Budapest Hotel is acutely mannered and highly stylized.
Nothing in this movie could be mistaken for real. Rather, the designs serve as
impressionist symbols meant to evoke a mood, not a reality. Characters with
similar aims always match. The bad guys all wear black, the good guys wear
pinks and purples, and the dreary arm of the law is clad in gray. On their own,
the designs are quite impressive, and in the context of the film, they slide
seamlessly into the world director Wes Anderson creates.

Mr. Turner – Sliding to the other end of the scale, we have the
relentlessly real and almost oppressively drab designs of Mr. Turner. Costume designer Jacqueline Durrand, a four-time
nominee and winner for Anna Karenina,
creates a Dickensian world of dust and dirt in which nothing is clean and
nothing ever looks new. Black and brown dominate the color palate of the film
as a whole, and Durrand’s designs fit that world like a white velvet glove.

As a member of high society and the cultural elite, JMW
Turner (Timohty Spall) would have been expected to dress to the nines for
nearly every occasion, be it a gallery opening, lunch with friends, or even a vacation.
The costumes are all big coats, tight vests, and top hats. Despite being a bit
dark and dank overall, the works feels right within the atmosphere of the film,
and Durrand’s handsome work certainly belongs with this group of nominees.

Into the Woods – Speaking of dark and dank, I present Disney’s Into the Woods, a reimagining of several
different fairytales set in a dreary universe that is more classic Grimm than Disney
princess. Colleen Atwood has more Academy Award nominations than any living costume
designer with 11, and like Canonero, she has won three times. Atwood is an
absolute treasure, and many of her designs have proven instantly iconic such as
her work on Tim Burton’s Alice in
Wonderland and Edward Scissorhands.
Compared against the rest of her career, this is minor work from Atwood.

There is nothing wrong with Atwood’s designs on the film,
per se. It is just that for a story about princes and princesses set in a
magical fantasy realm of giants and anthropomorphic wolves, the costumes are a
little bland and uninspiring. The problem is that director Rob Marshall created
such a boring world in which to play. Atwood is an imaginative and inventive
designer, but Into the Woods lacks
either of those qualities, and as such, her efforts are hampered.

Maleficent – Anna Sheppard is a three-time nominee in this category
but is also the only non-winner in this group. It looks likely to stay that way.
Other than the iconic horns on Angelina Jolie’s title character, there is
nothing that truly stands out as spectacular about the costume design of Maleficent. Again, the costumers’ branch
seems to have fallen hard for the combination of period and fantasy and
nominated a just-okay example of the form.

Sheppard’s work is good. The character styles are well
thought out and intricate, the designs are fun, and the iconography is intact.
I just wish the costumers could look beyond this kind of big, showy work that
looks good at first glance but does not really exist beyond the surface of the
character, a weird request, to be sure, of costume design.

The final analysis

For all the reasons outlined above, Canonero should win this
is a walk, but Atwood is a legend in the industry, and I am probably in the
minority when it comes to my opinion of the world of Into the Woods. I wish Inherent
Vice were in the conversation, but against the more fantastical work of the
other contenders, it would be hard for it to stand out. The smart money says
Canonero will benefit from all the below-the-line love coming to The Grand Budapest Hotel and will likely
win her fourth award.